Sky has a monopoly for a million or so households who can't even get analogue terrestrial without snow and hissing. Of course city dwellers wouldn't know about that. To broadcast bought-in content like films, the broadcaster has to restrict the coverage to the UK. This requires encryption, with decoders provided to known addresses. In the rest of Europe, I believe satellite broadcasters are required to use an encryption system that can be installed in any satellite box with a slot. So manufacturers can compete by making nice boxes that do clever things. For some unknown reason, Sky is allowed to lock the encryption (which free-to-view broadcasters are more or less compelled to use) to their own box, and key features of the box (DVR function) to paid monthly subscriptions. Then the pricing of the channel packages is carefully structured to force the rest of us to pay for bloody football.
It's time to take away Sky's monopoly on the box, the encryption, and the EPG. Sky is leveraging a partial monopoly into a much larger dominance through government's failure to regulate. Could this be connected with the fact that the Sun always seems to back the winner before a general election?
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Sky monopoly
Sky has a monopoly for a million or so households who can't even get analogue terrestrial without snow and hissing. Of course city dwellers wouldn't know about that. To broadcast bought-in content like films, the broadcaster has to restrict the coverage to the UK. This requires encryption, with decoders provided to known addresses. In the rest of Europe, I believe satellite broadcasters are required to use an encryption system that can be installed in any satellite box with a slot. So manufacturers can compete by making nice boxes that do clever things. For some unknown reason, Sky is allowed to lock the encryption (which free-to-view broadcasters are more or less compelled to use) to their own box, and key features of the box (DVR function) to paid monthly subscriptions. Then the pricing of the channel packages is carefully structured to force the rest of us to pay for bloody football.
It's time to take away Sky's monopoly on the box, the encryption, and the EPG. Sky is leveraging a partial monopoly into a much larger dominance through government's failure to regulate. Could this be connected with the fact that the Sun always seems to back the winner before a general election?